Rokiah Mahmud
The four-day Brunei MSME Festival at Bridex Hall 1 and 2, Jerudong kicked off yesterday with around 200 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) offering a wide range of products and services.
The festival, themed ‘DARe to Innovate: Growth and Resilience through Innovation’ saw vendors from food and beverage to the beauty and healthcare sectors showcase products and services, learn from industry experts and connect with potential buyers and partners.
The opening ceremony was officiated by Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah. Also present was Minister of Primary Resources and Tourism Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Abdul Manaf bin Haji Metussin.
The Brunei MSME Festival hopes to increase public awareness of MSMEs by providing them with more opportunities to showcase their products and services at a national level. It is also a platform for to identify local products and services that have the potential to be developed for export or import substitution, while promoting entrepreneurial culture among the people, said Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB) and Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) Daniel Leong.
The festival also saw a conference hosting experts from the public and private sectors as well as academia to discuss how MSMEs could leverage on new innovations to scale and build resilience.
The event also hosted exhibitions, seminars, and business matching sessions.
The seminars saw talks by government agencies and sharing sessions by MSMEs, while the business matching sessions saw business-to-business (B2B) meetings with local and international buyers and distributors from Singapore, Malaysia and United Arab Emirates.
